Lives of Dissonance
by BlueNeutrino
Summary: Hermione's parents have a secret to tell her; one that could potentially shake the foundations of her world and change her life forever. And it involves the Zabinis.
1. A Surprising Revelation

_**Lives of Dissonance  
**_

**Summary: Hermione's parents have a secret to tell her; one that could potentially shake the foundations of her world and change her life forever. And it involves the Zabinis.**

**A/N: How many "Hermione is a Zabini" stories have you read? Well, I guarantee this is nothing like any of them.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

**_Chapter One - A Surprising Revelation_  
**

It was early evening when Hermione heard raised voices coming from downstairs. Her parents were arguing. That was odd – they hardly ever argued with each other, which must mean something was very wrong for them to be yelling like this.

Wanting to find out what was going on, Hermione quietly crept downstairs to stand outside the kitchen doorway and listen in.

"You say a message has come from Zabini?" her mother was saying to her father, sounding angry.

"Yes dear, I'm afraid I've heard from him again."

"But I thought he was supposed to be dead? This was all supposed to be over years ago. I can't be dealing with that man back in our lives!" Mrs Granger shouted in distress, "What does he want with us now? Have you told anyone else?"

"It's to do with his widow. I'm the only one who knows at the moment, but circumstances have changed. Things are getting dangerous again." Her father's voice sounded worried. Hermione herself was growing concerned about what could possibly be wrong.

"Dangerous?" her mother shouted back. "We knew there would be danger when we signed up to this, but that's why we promised to keep her safe. Things have changed in the past fifteen years, and I don't want to get caught up in that mess again. There are other things we need to deal with. So what…" she suddenly lowered her voice, but standing so close Hermione was able to hear anyway. "So what does this mean for Hermione? This is going to affect her, but we can't possibly tell her the truth."

_What truth? _Hermione wondered, feeling both intrigued and apprehensive.

"We'll have to tell her," her father replied. "She's old enough to know the truth now."

"But think about what it could cost us. What if anyone else finds out?" protested her mother, sounding borderline panicked.

"We have no choice," her father responded with a sense of finality.

A few moments passed in silence, and then Hermione heard her mother sigh. "No, you're right," she agreed, sounding resigned.

Sensing this was the opportune moment for her to enter the conversation, Hermione stepped out from where she was hiding behind the door and walked into the room. "Tell me what?" she said demandingly, wanting to know what it was they'd just been talking about that supposedly would affect her.

Her parents both turned to look at her in shock, surprised to see her standing there, and then realising that she must have overheard most of the conversation her mother spoke. "Hermione, darling. You see, there's something you should know about us," she said.

"What?" Hermione prompted, a definite note of apprehension in her voice.

"Well, we're not really…" Her mother trailed off, unable to bring herself to answer, but Hermione pressed her further.

"You're not really what?"

Her mother just looked at her, biting her lip as if she were afraid to answer, but then her father spoke.

"We're not really dentists."

Hermione suddenly turned to look at him, her eyes widening. "What?"

"No," he said with a shake of his head, "You see, Hermione, we work for the British Secret Service."


	2. An Even More Surprising Explanation

**A/N: Betcha weren't expecting part one to end the way it did. Here's a bit more and I hope you like it.**

_**Chapter Two – An Even More Surprising Explanation**_

Hermione just stared at him speechless for a few moments, which allowed him to continue.

"We're Muggle Liaisons to the Wizarding Intelligence Office," her father explained, which only astounded her further. "We've known ever since you were born that there was a possibility you might be a witch, since your mother and I have both tested positive for the recessive magical genes."

Her mother then nodded and elaborated a little more. "The tests were required as part of our jobs. We've been aware of the existence of the wizarding world much longer than you realise, sweetheart. Actually, that was how we met - through work I mean – but that isn't the thing we need to tell you. What's important is that when you were roughly a year old, your father was working with a man called Pascal Zabini. We each had magical partners and Zabini was his. Pascal had gone undercover and married a woman who was believed to be in league with the Death Eaters, and he was trying to find out what had happened to her three previous husbands who'd died in suspicious circumstances. However, then You-Know-Who was defeated and Zabini was supposed to be pulled out of the operation, but he died after falling off of his broomstick before he got chance to escape."

Mrs Granger paused briefly, and Hermione took the opportunity to ask a question. She turned to look at her father with an expression of astonishment. "You used to work with Blaise Zabini's father? But I go to school with him. He hates me."

Her father nodded. "Yes, Alexandra Zabini raised her son to be a pureblood elitist like she was. It's a sad thing, but his father was different. Pascal never agreed with any of that, but he had to act otherwise. He was good at his job. No-one ever figured out why he really married her, or at least that's what we thought up until now."

He stopped talking for a moment and Hermione urged him to continue. "Go on."

Mr Granger resumed the explanation. "It was thought that he was chasing a Death Eater at the time of his death, but it was never known for sure. However, I've recently been contacted by a man claiming to be him, and it turns out he never died after all. He explained to me what really happened at the time. By September 1981 he'd gathered enough evidence to show that Mrs Zabini was responsible for the deaths of her previous husbands, but there was also a lead suggesting she had Death Eater contacts and he didn't want to arrest her until he'd managed to follow that up."

This was all quite astonishing to Hermione and she was listening intently. Her parents? _Spies? _And spies working with the Ministry at that. How could she not have noticed something strange was going on? They must be incredibly good at their jobs to keep this secret even from her, but now that she thought about it she realised it actually did make sense. All those nights they'd been working late – what dentist had appointments at 9.00 in the evening? And all those week-long conferences they both went on. Suddenly, Hermione realised that her parents being spies wasn't actually all that far-fetched at all, although it was quite incredible that her dad had once worked with Blaise Zabini's father.

"However," Mr Granger continued, "After You-Know-Who's downfall he quickly realised that she was on to him and that he was going to be her next target, so he faked his own death before she had chance to kill him. For the past fifteen years he's been lying low gathering more intelligence on what really happened to You-Know-Who himself and which of his followers are still out there, but as you know, You-Know-Who's now returned to power. Zabini has contacted me to tell me he knows of a plot for an Azkaban prison break, but he's afraid that his widow has discovered he's still alive and may be planning to hand him over to the Death Eaters. He wants to pass the information on to me in case anything happens to him. That means one of You-Know-Who's agents might be coming after us as well now, as soon as I alert the Ministry."

He paused a moment and sighed, before looking at Hermione with an expression of deep sadness, "I'm so sorry, darling. I'm sorry for putting you in danger like this."

"Yes, we're so sorry Hermione," her mother said as well, tears beginning to fill her eyes. "We're sorry for keeping this from you all this time, but we had to for your own safety. Nobody is supposed to know what our jobs really are, but I'm sorry we had to lie to you."

Hermione looked from her mother to her father and then shook her head. "Sorry?" she said, her own voice rising in pitch as she felt herself becoming quite emotional too. "What are you sorry for? That is amazing, that you would help fight Voldemort even though you're muggles, and it's amazing that you've managed to protect me all these years, and I understand that you've had to lie to me and you've got nothing to be sorry about. You're my parents and I'll love you no matter what."

For a few moments there was silence as the three of them just looked at each other, and then Mrs Granger went to hug her daughter.

"Oh Hermione, sweetheart, I'm so glad you can understand," Mrs Granger said, "I was so scared to tell you but I'm relieved you're okay with it."

"Of course I am, Mum," Hermione muttered in reply, "I'm not worried about being in danger. Well, I am, but after what happened at the Department of Mysteries last year I think I can deal with it. I'm just so proud of you for doing what you've been doing."

"And we're proud of you too, darling," her mother replied, "We couldn't say anything because officially we aren't meant to know what happened at the Ministry, but we were so proud of you for it."

Hermione felt herself wanting to cry but forced a smile instead. "Thanks, mum," she began to say, but just then the back door to the kitchen suddenly burst open and a man stumbled through. The three of them turned in shock to see him collapse to the floor, a hand clasped to a stomach wound from which blood was pouring out over his fingers.

The man had dark brown skin and short, unruly black hair, and a face that was ruggedly handsome despite the lines of stress and age that were now etched into it. At the sight of him, a look of recognition crossed Mr Granger's face. "Pascal?" he said in shock.

Pascal Zabini's deep brown eyes looked up to meet those of his former partner, and then he croaked hoarsely, "Hugo, you have to get out of here."


End file.
